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Installing Fedora Linux On Same Hd As Windows Xp


Cookieman123

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Hey guys, first off I am a Linux noob

 

Basically what I want to do is install Linux on the same Hard Drive as Windows XP, as I cannot afford to buy another right now. I tried this last weekend at my friends house. First I installed Linux using the automatic partition setting (which created three linux partitions) Next, when I tried to install Windows XP, It said that I had the maximum number of partitions on my Hard Drive!! Also, Isnt there some specific format that windows has to be in? Can I keep it in NTFS?

 

Thanks for all your help, I need it :D

 

-Jeremy

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From what I have read, you need to install Windows first, then Linux. The way I did it was to format my drive during the Windows install so that I only used part of the drive for the Windows partition, then I installed Linux and let it partition the remainder of the drive.

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You definately do NOT need to install windows first, but it is recommended and as a newbie, you should definately do it.

 

Your fault was that you didn't set aside space for Windows, and the new Fedora installation took all of your hard drive.

 

When you install windows, make sure that you only use a certain amount of your hard drive. So say you have a 40gb hard drive, give windows 15gb and leave the rest free.

 

Then when you go to install fedora tell it to install using the hard drives free space, which will be the other 25gb.

 

You could do the same thing in reverse if you really wanted to do fedora first, just make sure its your first partition that is windows, otherwise your drive name will be D:\ or something besides C:, and windows programmers are retarded and don't take that into effect on some things :/

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:withstupid: I think that Partition Magic can partition a drive with stuff on it, but I personally would recommend that you wipe the whole thing and start anew. Also, don't forget that you need 3 partitions for Linux: Root, Swap, and Boot. The root one will be the big one that you install all of your software on. The Swap is like your pagefile, and only needs to be like 512mb. The boot is where your bootloader will reside, and it only needs to be like 100mb or so. In the grand scheme of things, the other two partitions hardly take up any space, but they are very important.

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install fedora first as it has a nasty habit of wiping windows if your partitions arn't perfect. then partition a windows section, then install xp on it..

 

No offense, but again, that's a bad idea...

 

For three reasons:

  • You can tell Fedora to ignore the rest of the partitions
     
  • Still a lot of applications only use C:\ for a drive, and installing fedora first in most cases will make your windows drive something like G:\
     
  • Once he installs windows again he will have his Master Boot Record overwritten again, and won't know how to get linux back up and running :/

 

 

Also, don't forget that you need 3 partitions for Linux: Root, Swap, and Boot.

 

That's also untrue :/

Root is the only one required. I'd recommend setting your system up a lot differently, but being new you problably can't do that without a guide of some sort.

 

I'm not sure if grub requires /boot to be a seperate partition, but I highly doubt it :/

 

If you can figure out how to configure your system, I'd set it as:

  • 35% Root
  • 5% Swap
  • 40% /home
  • 20% /usr/local

/usr/local is where all your installed programs should go that don't pertain to the system, like in many cases your instant messengers, irc clients, so when you upgrade your computer or whatever all your saved files (/home) and programs (/usr/local) are still there :)

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Hey OCC,

 

Ok, I'm totally fed up with Microsoft and there cr@p. So I have a few Fedora questions to pick your brains with. Mind you I'm a linux idoit so bare with me. I need to have Windows XP installed for school reasons but the problem I'm coming across when installing Fedora is this.

 

I have a SIIG raid controller that is raided 4+0 stripe for windows/gaming. When I try to install Fedora and get to the partitioning screen to create a partition it says it can not detect any hard drives. But during the Fedora boot, I see that it detects 4 hard drives. Atleast it looks like it does.

 

Now would my best bet to get a dual booting system be eliminating one hard drive from the array? So it's just a 3+0 stripe for windows xp, and hook up the 4th to the motherboard directly? And will I get the boot option to choose which os to boot to once the computer turns on this way? If possible I would like to keep the 4+0 stripe and just create a partition for Fedora.

 

I got it to install Fedora totally once, I thought I had it figured out. But then it just booted to Windows and the system froze at the XP Pro screen.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

Antivert

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Oh my god.. Why the hell didn't he test the memory? That sucks... O_O

 

Err, Windows XP for school reasons? Doubt it lol... There is absolutely no reason to have Windows XP for school reasons.. Esspecially since all their file formats are portable with open office and their applications are emulatable with Wine

 

I have never delt with RAID devices, but I'm sure there is a way...

 

I'm also infamiliar with fedora, but if you can find a way to boot the kernel with certain options (Normally right when it boots? :/), then you can specify to do raided loadup...

 

And no matter how you set it, the linux boot loaders out there can boot up your linux and Windows XP, :)

 

Sorry I can't be much more help :/ err...

Edited by Zarkhalar

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